Annapolis to Solomon Islands

Day 3, Tuesday, April 18, 2017  

You can monitor my trip at the link: Little Star's Progress Live

Today was a travel day.  We awoke a bit before 7:00 and enjoyed a great breakfast of sausage gravy on toast.  Our new toaster is not quite up to what we had hoped for.  I put it on the stove top, slapped on a couple of slices of bread, turned on the gas burner, (as we did with the one on our own boat) and as I was stirring the gravy I realized that the toast was burning, putting out a voluminous amount of blue smoke.  Huh!  I cut down the fire and paid

Janine concentrating on our course

more attention to the gadget so as to get several slices of browned bread that worked well under the gravy.

After cleaning up a few last minute details, we threw off the dock lines and headed out into Back Creek.  The temperature was 50 degrees and the wind was blowing from the northeast at about 9 knots.  Out in the open bay, Janine took the wheel and I raised the sails. We shut down the engine and even in that light wind we were able to make better than 5 knots. 

It was a bright clear day providing us with an extra-long visibility as we sailed down the bay.  Our goal was to spend the night in the

A common sight n the Bay

the Solomon Islands.  The nice breeze began to so we dropped them.  The boat has a neat sail cover called a Stack Pack.  Basically it is a large bag the length of the boom that is hung for an upper section of the mast.  As the sail falls, it neatly lays down in the bag which can then be zipped closed for stowage. 

For lunch, I fixed Jim and me tacos while Janine made a pulled pork rollup. I had canned a number of servings of taco meat and pork prior to the trip. This is a throwback from being on Second Wind with no refrigeration and the need to rely on finding ice if we were carrying fresh meat.

As the afternoon progressed, the wind continued to die down to the point that as we swung into the entrance of Patuxent River, the water was becoming glassy.  Shortly, the wind swung around to the south and began to blow quite strongly.  This wind which was in our face was quite cool and we3

Pair of osprey pair at home on green day marker three

soon began adding layers of clothing.

Our destination was a beautiful area named the Solomons.  This is a popular area for boaters with a number of marinas filled with a lot of large boats.  We headed for the Zahniser Marina where we caught a ball in their mooring field. I had stopped here in the fall and found the field quite crowded but today, we were accompanied by only one other boat.

Zahniser Marina

We took the dinghy in to the dock and attempted to pay our fee but were surprised to find that they closed at 4:30 and we were about a half an hour late.  We had planned to shower and buy a few supplies but needed a pass code from the marina office to do that so we headed back to the boat.

Our evening meal was Skyline Chile 4-ways.  We had bought canned chile the last time we were in Cincinnati and with a bag of shredded cheese and some spaghetti, we were better off than we would have been had we been in the restaurant because we were able to enjoy a glass of wine with our meal. After dinner, I drug out the Bake Packer and made a blob carrot caké with homemade cream cheese icing from the Betty Crocker kitchen. 

We sat and talked until around 9:30 and then bed.  It was a good day.

Day 4, Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Today was another slogging travel day.  It began with a cup of hot coffee followed by pancakes and bacon.   After 8:00, I took the dinghy to the marina office where I paid our fee.

Nice waterfront home in Solomon

We cast off the mooring ball at around 9:00 and headed out into the Bay proper.  The wind was blowing out of the southeast so we had to motor.  Actually we spent the entire day motoring. As the day progressed, the wind increased and the waves on Bay continued to build.  It was also quite cold.  The air temperature was in the low to mid 50’s throughout the day and, with winds topping 18 knots, it was cold.  We were all three bundled up as though it was mid-winter. We saw very few boats out on the water.  The wave height built to 3 to 4 feet with a

Need I say more!

number of large waves reaching 5 feet.  And, they were right on our nose. We would have been really uncomfortable had we been on Second Wind.   I didn’t realize that it could be too uncomfortable for the Bay fishermen. 

Along the way, we passed a couple of interesting areas.  The first was some sort of target that was used by the Navy pilots for practice.  I assume that it was sort of smart-board system at which they fired electronic weapons.  The second area was a bombing range where they fired at a derelict ship that had been grounded in shallow water.  I am not sure that one is still active.  Both areas were designated as no entry zones on our charts.

Our destination was an anchorage in the Great Wicomico River near the town of Reedville. The river is located just south of the huge opening to the

Our lone neighbor in Sandy Point Cove

Potomac.   I didn’t actually check but I assume that the mouth is well over 5 miles wide.  You can barely see one side of the river from the other.  I felt like we were never going to get past it.

We motored up the Wicomico Great River to a beautiful open cove where we attempted to drop our anchor.  I was at the helm while Jim went forward to drop the hook.  The boat is rigged with an electric windlass which is used to raise and lower the anchor. It turned out that the windlass was seized so Jim pulled out 75 feet of the steel chain and dropped the anchor by hand.  Once the boat was secure, we both tried to free the windlass but to no avail.   

We finally gave up, had a beer and cooked some burgers to accompany our cheesy grits.  For dessert we finished off what was left of the carrot cake.

We spent the remainder of the evening charting our course for tomorrow and trying to figure out what we were going to do about the faulty windless.  We found an anchorage on down the Bay that is located near a West Marine supply store where we may have to purchase another windlass.  It won’t be cheap.

And then bed at 9:30.